Student recounts escape in explosion

EASTON - Matt J. Tarulli went toward the light, and it saved his life.

"It's just really a miracle for me to be here right now," the 19-year-old Stonehill College junior said yesterday.

"It was a very scary situation."

Tarulli needed a cane to help him walk as he spoke to reporters, one day after the house he rented on Jenny Lind Street in Easton was blown apart and burned by what authorities have concluded was a natural gas explosion.

"I don't have anything right now - but my life," Tarulli said, appearing at a press conference accompanied by his parents, Bart and Maryann Tarulli of New Jersey.

Matt Tarulli was one of four Stonehill students in the house about 11 a.m. Monday when natural gas seeped in and ignited. The four students, including Tarulli, sustained minor injuries and two workers from Bay State Gas Co. and a subcontractor were also injured.

"I saw a flash, and the whole house just came down with me," Tarulli said.

Yesterday, a spokeswoman for State Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan said investigators have concluded that the explosion was an accident that resulted from natural gas seeping into the building.

The gas was ignited by the pilot light on a water heater, said Jennifer Mieth.

Investigators are still not sure how the gas leaked into the house and are waiting to interview the injured workers before reaching a conclusion, she said.

Work crews for Bay State Gas Company and a subcontractor were reconnecting gas service to the house when it exploded.

Bay State has been upgrading gas lines in the neighborhood for the past several weeks.

Donald DiNunno, spokesman for Bay State Gas Co., said they have not been formally notified by Coan's office about the investigation's conclusions.

DiNunno said that there are a number of state and federal agencies still investigating and that it would be premature to assign blame until they are done.

Paul Hibbard, commissioner of the state Department of Public Utilities, said his agency is reviewing the safety plans and testing the pipes and other equipment, but has not yet reached a finding on the origin of the blast.

Speaking to reporters, Tarulli said he was the only student on the second floor Monday morning and was working on his computer while watching ESPN on television.

Suddenly, he heard an explosion, and the floor fell out from under him and he plunged downward, along with the floor.

The impact stunned him, but he did not lose consciousness, he said.

Tarulli looked behind him and saw fire and then looked ahead. "There was no wall," he said.

"I could see the outside and the driveway. . . . I just saw light and started going for it."

The other students were on the first floor and apparently asleep at the time of the explosion.

They crawled out from the wrecked house on the other side of the building, where Easton police and residents helped until medical personnel arrived.

Tarulli, a fullback on the football team, said he dug himself out from under debris, crawled through the smoke, and dragged himself across broken glass and sometimes stepped on nails in his frantic effort to escape.

As he neared the outside, he saw construction workers running over from across the street and shouted to them for help.

They pulled him out, and about one minute later the house was rocked by a second explosion and a massive fire.

Tarulli, bleeding from dozens of cuts and scrapes, sat and watched the house burn.

"I was just sitting there, watching the house in flames, and just staring at it and not understanding how it was I was out of there and I was alive," he said.